


Are You My Dad?

by isabeau25



Series: Wander Home [16]
Category: Epic (2013)
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 15:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1432789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau25/pseuds/isabeau25
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nod would like a clarification on titles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are You My Dad?

**Author's Note:**

> **Please read this note before continuing.** There is a time jump of about 3-4 months between this piece and [Mine!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1425664). Many things happen during that time, but the most important is that Ronin officially adopts Nod.
> 
> Also, Nod's name means "to wander." Ronin makes a reference to that in this piece.

It was too late to cook, especially since it would mean going to the market first, so Ronin had taken Nod down to the mess hall for dinner. Crowds still made the boy nervous, but he had been doing alright with the mess hall as long as they could sit at a booth along the wall. It was late enough that the mess hall wasn’t particularly crowded anyway.

Ronin had learned early on that the best way to stop Nod from living up to his name was to put him on the inside end of the bench and sit between him and freedom. He sometimes still tried to crawl out under the table, but it helped.

Nod was more interested in food tonight though then escaping. He sprawled on the bench with his head on Ronin’s leg and munched contently on mushroom pasties. Ronin was almost to the point of trying to instill table manners into him. Almost, but not quite. They were working on ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ at the moment.

Nod had talked his ear off on the way down, but now that he had food to occupy him, he wasn’t interested in talking anymore. Ronin took advantage of the distraction to pick away at the seemingly endless stacks of reports while he ate.

Finn slid onto the bench across from them, looking ready to fall asleep in his food.

“If you see my sister, I’m not here,” he said.

“Alright,” Ronin didn’t look up; he didn’t want to know what Finn had done this time, and he didn’t care which sister he had mad at him.

“Hi Nod,” Finn added with a yawn.

Nod raised his hand above the table to wave and Finn grinned, then started shoveling food in his mouth. Ronin went back to reading, occasionally dropping his hand down to stroke Nod’s hair, or reaching out to stop the boy from dumping his juice on himself.

Ronin lost track of time, but suddenly Nod was clamoring into his lap. He settled himself facing Ronin, a sign that he either wanted to talk to him, or just play with the buckles on the shoulders of his armor. He was oddly obsessed with buckles. Maybe if Ronin got him shoes with buckles, he would stop losing them.

“Ronin?” Nod reached out and tugged on a buckle.

“Yes?” Ronin set down the report he had been reading and laced his hands behind the boy’s back; he always felt like Nod might go careening backwards at any moment when he sat like that.

“You’re my dad, right?” Nod started working the buckle loose.

Ronin blinked, something fluttering unexpectedly in his chest. When he had been trying to explain to Nod what it meant that he had adopted him, he hadn’t really been thinking in those terms.

“Yeah, I’m your dad,” he brushed back the boy’s hair, “you had another mom and dad before me though.”

“But they’re dead,” Nod got the buckle undone, then set to work re-fastening it.

Nod was oddly unaffected by the knowledge of his parents’ death. He didn’t seem to remember them at all, and Ronin wasn’t sure if he didn’t quite grasp their connection to himself, or if he didn’t understand the implications of them being dead. At the very least, Ronin knew he understood what death was.

“Yeah, they are,” Ronin said.

“So you’re my dad,” Nod fastened the buckle crooked, then started working on undoing the other one.

“That’s right,” Ronin nodded.

“Am I supposed to call you ‘dad’?” Nod looked up at him, hands wrapped around the buckle, “or ‘father’? Maisy calls her dad ‘father’, but Spen calls his dad ‘dad’, and Errin calls her dad ‘daddy’, but Spen said that’s for babies, but Miss Orla said that’s not true at all, and…”

“You can call me which ever you like,” Ronin stopped him, knowing once Nod got going, he could keep going indefinitely.

“Can I call you Ronin?” Nod looked down, suddenly shy.

“Yeah,” Ronin laughed, “you can call me Ronin.”

“Good,” Nod left the buckle half undone and wrapped his arms around Ronin’s neck, pressing his face into his shoulder, “because you’re Ronin.”

Ronin ginned and hugged him tight, pressing a kiss to his hair. He realized Finn was staring at them with a goofy smile on his face and kicked him under the table.

“Ow!” Finn jumped and reached down to rub his shin.

Ronin snickered and cuddled Nod closer, ignoring Finn, even when the goofy grin returned.


End file.
